The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, the final chapter in Peter Jackson's majestic fantasy trilogy, led the Academy Awards race today with 11 nominations, including best picture and director.
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the Kingtopped the list and was followed by seafaring adventure, Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World.
Joining them on the list of nominees in the best film category were crime thriller Mystic River,horse racing tale Seabiscuit,and Lost in Translation,about two disenchanted Americans in Tokyo.
Best actor nominations went to Johnny Depp for
Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl,Ben Kingsley for
House of Sand and Fog,Jude Law for
Cold Mountain,Bill
Murray for
Lost in Translationand Sean Penn for
Mystic River.
Best actress nominees were Charlize Theron in
Monster,Naomi Watts in
21 Grams,Samantha Morton for In America,
Diane Keaton in Something's Gotta Give,and Keisha Castle-Hughes for
Whale Rider.
Nominations for directing went to Peter Jackson for
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King,Clint Eastwood for
Mystic River,Peter Weir for
Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World,Sofia Coppola for
Lost in Translationand Fernando Meirelles for
City of God.
Supporting actor nominations were given to Alec Baldwin in The Cooler,Benicio Del Toro for 21 Grams,Djimon Hounsou for In America, Tim Robbins in Mystic River,and Ken Watanabe in The Last Samurai.
Nominations for supporting actress went to Renee Zellweger for Cold Mountain,Holly Hunter in Thirteen,Marcia Gay Harden in Mystic River,Patricia Clarkson for Pieces of Apriland Shohreh Aghdashloo in House of Sand and Fog.
Jim Sheridan, Naomi Sheridan and Kirsten Sheridan also received a best screenplay nomination.
The Oscars, which are award by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, are the US film industry's top honors and will be given out in a gala ceremony from Los Angeles on February 29th.